


I'm Running and I've Just Enough

by PaxDuane



Series: Alola Family -- Legends and All [9]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate POV, Angst, Asexuality, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Getting on the same page, Hau's POV, Hau's life is weird but Satoshi's life is weirder, M/M, bisexual Hau, gray-romantic Hau, gray-sexual Professor Kukui, gray-sexual Satoshi, i should do a family tree document, local fool writes and edits over 5k, my weird aus, psychic dreams, somehow they are not though, we are this close to them being official guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 09:48:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21116762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaxDuane/pseuds/PaxDuane
Summary: Hau first hears of Ash Ketchum as a tourist. He first hears of Satoshi "Ash" Gris Ketchum-Sycamore as the closest thing to a Kahuna candidate from outside Alola. Along the way and after, he falls in love for the first time.





	I'm Running and I've Just Enough

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to post this tomorrow but then the rain came and wHOOP panic attack. So y'all get it early. Encompasses Chapter 1 to Chapter 11.
> 
> Title from Sia - The Greatest.

Hau is in the kitchen, mashing an iapapa berry to mix with one of his poi recipes when he first hears of Ash Ketchum.

Hala is on the phone with Nanu, but has it on speaker in case Hau wants to interject about anything.

“…And there are a couple of Kantonese tourists who are bringing in an egg for Professor Samson Oak from his cousin there.”

And that’s all there is, and eventually the conversation turns to Plumeria being exasperated by Team Skull’s latest recruits and how Hau should come by Ula’Ula with a sour poi soon.

He misses the hubbub of one of those tourists moving in to stay with Ahilani—Professor Kukui now—because he’s off doing just that with the aguav laced poi, as well getting a lesson on crowd control from Nanu. When he returns, though, he learns about it and nods it off.

He knows quite a few Kantonese people, they love to do anything to make themselves stronger. That’s why they come to his tutu’s dojo. That’s why there’s such a high turnover rate of them at his tutu’s dojo.

Once, when Ahilani Kukui was just the big brother figure that lived next door and hung out with Guzma when he was in charge of babysitting both the dojo and Hau, he swore to Ahilani that he would never like anyone from Kanto. One of the visiting fighters had put a hole through the floor with a basic mess up of an easy flip.

He’d only been like six, Ahilani had just gotten back from Kanto himself two years prior, but he’d stuck to that.

It didn’t help that Kanto is where his dad was.

So he’s somewhat surprised when his tutu announces one night, “Tomorrow Ahilani and his boarder, Ash Ketchum or some such, are coming by. The boy says he needs spiritual advice. More than I can say for most people from his region.”

Yeah, it doesn’t help anyone that Kanto is where his dad was.

Raichu swirls around him all night, trying to cheer him up as he makes the next morning’s breakfast – poi with mago berry.

He really needs some sweets. He wonders if, after Tutu is done with the Kantonese boy, he can run and get some malasadas.

It’s frustrating, somewhat, to have someone who knows enough, who is sensitive enough, to ask for help. But the Gods of Alola are capricious, and if some foreigner is going to waltz in here thinking he’s special for something painfully average…

It’s happened before, just once to Hala. Twice to Nanu. Olivia isn’t old enough, yet, for the foreigners to take her place as Kahuna seriously in that aspect. They just think her battling power is the reason for her title.

They don’t know about the dreams, the visits from the different Kapu, the embodiment of their Gods each Kahuna takes.

Then Ash Ketchum comes to call the next day. Hau doesn’t hear him come in and greet his grandfather, he’s too busy trying to get a pair of fighters, one from Kanto and one from Johto, to stop fighting violently. They brush him off as a kid, despite them only being a couple of years older than him, so Hau goes for his grandfather, Raichu trailing behind him before peeling off the head to the kitchen.

His first thought on meeting Ash Ketchum is, “Oh no, he’s hot.” His second thought, upon noticing the Pikachu hanging out on his shoulders is, “Oh no, he’s my type.”

There’s a brusque introduction, with Ash’s Pikachu making a fuss about the fighters, from what Hau can gather, and then they are left alone and Hau awkwardly leads the other boy to the kitchen.

He notices Ash notice his Raichu.

“Is, uh, he? Is he an Alolan form Raichu?” Ash asks as his Pikachu jumps off his shoulder and jolts over to Raichu, stopping just short and sniffing at it before going into pika-talk, which Raichu listens carefully to and responds to in a sweet voice with his own chu-talk.

Hau isn’t sure what he expected—Ash is going to the Pokemon School so he’ll have learned a bit about variants. “Yeah!” Hau says, grinning despite himself, “And you guessed right, my Raichu is a he.” He turns to the fridge and opens it up. “It’s hard to tell with Alolan Raichu because they don’t have gender differences. Hey do you want some berries or something? Ooo we have poi left from this morning.”

He’s shocked when Ash asks, “Is there enough for me too?”

Hau looks at him over his shoulder, wide-eyed. A foreigner wanting to try poi? “Yeah, but most people don’t like it. Like, not even everyone from Alola likes it,” he says.

“Momi made me try it once, and I liked it,” Ash replies.

“Momi Kukui? The professor’s mom?” he asks, pulling out the large, covered bowl of poi from the fridge.

“Yeah.”

Hau hadn’t thought Momi was on the island since quite a bit before Ash got here, but she could have come back for a couple days. There’s no way this kid is going to like Hau’s poi if he’s had hers, and for some reason Hau really wants Ash to like his cooking. “Yeesh, her poi is so much better than mine, you may hate it,” he admits.

“Hey, don’t sell yourself short!” Ash insists. “I may like yours better!”

“Blasphemy!” Hau calls out, laughing at the thought. So Ash is cute, and has a Pikachu, and likes poi, and is obviously on board for liking Hau’s poi. But that shouldn’t make his heart flutter like this. Still, they’re both laughing as Hau dishes up his poi.

Ash falls on his bowl, served first while brushing knuckles with Hau, with a fervor. By the time Hau has served himself and their pokemon, he comes up for air and takes Hau’s breath away by saying, “You sold yourself short.”

Momi is going to kill him and weigh his body down in the ocean. He will tell the gods of the afterlife it was worth it. “Well I guess Momi _is_ the one who taught me how to make it.”

That’s when Hala and Professor Kukui come back to the kitchen, making curious sounds.

Hau dramatically points at Professor Kukui. “He says my poi is better than Momi’s!”

Kukui’s eyebrows shoot up and he grins, looking over at Ash. “Well, you do make a lot more of it than my mother, Hau. You have to feed a lot more people _and_ you grandfather. And practice makes perfect.”

Hala, echoing that, pats his stomach and gets out two more bowls and dishes he and Kukui up some poi of their own.

The professor and the Kahuna eat it the traditional way, but after only one bite does Kukui speak up, surprise in his voice. “Yeah, no, Ash is right. This is better than my mother’s. At least from memory.”

“Hau has been experimenting,” Hala speaks up, pride evident in his voice. “He’s been adding berries to some of it, trying to get a broader range of tastes. It works, but the berries _do_ make it ferment faster.”

Then the Kahuna picks up the bowl and drains it.

“Tutu, Professor,” Hau says, eyes filled with stars and tears of pride. “Thank you for the compliment.”

Hala sets his bowl back down and laughs at his grandson. “It’s the truth. Now—Ash. What is the reason you’ve come to me? Unless it is too private.”

Ash turns to face Hala, and Hau feels the absence of his eyes on him.

“Oh uh. I mean, part of it is. But I can explain the basic question pretty easily.” He lifts is left wrist up, showing off his Z-Ring. “I came here on vacation, and on my first night here I was confronted by a Legendary pokemon, Kapu-Kokeku, and he gave me this with an Electrium-Z in it.”

That can’t be right, Hau think. There’s no way a foreigner, no matter how strong, no matter how nice, no matter how anything could get Kapu-Kokeku of all the Island Gods to like him. Right?

Hala’s eyebrows go up. “So that’s where it went.”

Wrong, apparently.

“Has the Kapu done this before?” Professor Kukui asks, putting down his own rapidly emptying bowl of poi.

“No, but he does play tricks sometimes,” Hala admits. “Nothing like this. Where is the Electrium-Z now?”

“Professor do you have the picture?” Ash asks, finishing his own poi.

“Hmm? Yeah. Group chat photo.”

“Nice,” Ash says, nodding like it will make a world of sense. “Anyways, so I ended up staying in Alola and boarding with the professor and on my first day of classes at the Pokemon School the Kapu showed up again and challenged me for the express purpose of showing me how to use Gigavolt Havoc.”

This is…Maybe not impossible but…

Hau was training, he was training for the possibility of being a Kahuna either in Ula’Ula or here on Melemele. He’d met Kapu-Bulu several times. He’d dreamt with Kapu-Rehire and played tag as a younger child with Kapu-Tetefu.

He’d never met Kapu-Kokeku.

The Professor is showing Hala the picture on his phone, but Hala twists so Hau can’t lean over and see it.

“I just want to know why,” Ash says. “Legendaries usually have a reason for the things they do, especially when it’s this…deliberate.”

He’s met other Legendary Pokemon. He’s met other gods. That’s what is implied in what he’s saying. He’s not implying it himself, he’s acting like it’s normal.

To Olivia, it is. To Hapu, who is living with a pair of strong trainers while she comes into her own as Poni Island’s Kahuna, it is. To Acerola, it is. To a few others on Melemele and Ula’Ula, it is. It is for Hala, it is for Nanu.

It is for Hau.

Is that why Hau wants the other boy’s attention? Is it just an attraction to another spiritual powerhouse who happens to be his age?

Hala hums. “We need to go to the Ruins, then, and ask for guidance. Ahilani, Hau, watch over the dojo while we’re up there.”

Hau frowns. “Okay Tutu.”

“Of course, Kahuna Hala,” Professor Kukui says.

Hala stands and gestures to Ash.

Pikachu makes a move to hop on his trainer’s shoulder, but Ash shakes his head. “Keep Raichu company, okay Pikachu?”

The Pikachu looks apprehensive, but Hau is impressed by the respect Ash is giving. He’s going to pray for guidance to the electricity wielding God of Conflict—he shouldn’t bring in another pokemon. Let alone an electric type.

“Pika…”

Still, Pikachu sticks by Raichu.

Hala leads Ash out the back, to the Ruins of Conflict, and leaves Hau and Professor Kukui alone.

“What,” Hau says, voice half whisper and half anger at the gods, “The fuck?”

“That’s just Ash,” Kukui says, clapping Hau on the shoulder.

“No, I mean,” Hau starts, then stops. Kukui would hold this over his head forever.

But he might have some insight.

“I think I like him, Ahilani,” Hau says, fully complaining.

The professor laughs. “Seriously? What happened to serious baby Hau who swore off anything from Kanto?”

“He’s still fucking here,” Hau says, socking the professor in the shoulder. “And he’s mad and confused. All that, about legendaries being purposeful? He sounds like a Kahuna candidate, Ahilani!”

The professor pauses at that. “You think you think you like him because of the legendaries?”

“What else could it be?” Hau asks, shrugging angrily. “I mean, he’s from Kanto!”

The professor sighs. “Hau, not everything from Kanto is bad. And Ash is a good kid with a lot on his plate. If it helps, he’s not even all from Kanto. He’s half Kalosian.”

“Like you?” Hau asks.

That makes the elder laugh. “Yeah, like me. But seriously, just take a step back and look at this. You think he’s attractive?”

“Yeah.”

“You think he’s nice?”

“Yeah.”

“You think he has a good choice in pokemon?” That’s teasing, definitely.

Still, Hau says, “Yeah.”

“Then give it a shot,” Kukui says, shrugging. “Just friendship, maybe more. You never know.”

“Says the man who can’t get a date to save his life,” Hau says, deadpan.

Kukui stares him dead in the eye. “My family has a history of not being the most… interested in sex or relationships. My oldest brother is asexual, we’re not sure about the other but we’re pretty sure he reproduced only for…not so stellar reasons. One of my nephews has only ever been interested in the man he married, two others I have never noticed an interest about the opposite or same gender in, and the other… Anyways, being on the ace spectrum somehow runs in the family. I’m gray-asexual. I’ve been attracted to maybe two people in my entire 29 years of living. So don’t go making fun.”

Hau blushes, in shame mainly. He shouldn’t have said that.

“But I’ll tell you this,” Kukui says, the teasing note back in his voice, “I’ve never seen Ash warm up to someone as fast as you. Not truly. Even his classmates he’s still a bit back from.”

“Really?” Hau asks, his blush furthering into something much more embarrassed and hopeful.

“Yup.” Kukui grins. “So you really should rethink your whole no-Kanto policy.”

Hau blushes and punches Kukui again. “Shut uuup.”

Kukui breaks into a cackle and that’s when Hala and a blushing Ash come back in.

Ash takes one look at them and says, “I don’t want to know.”

“No,” Hau agrees, “You don’t.” He looks up at them and notices Ash’s lingering blush and dead eyes. “I… don’t want to know either, do I?”

“Nope,” Ash says, popping the end of the word. “Professor, you said you’d help me start setting up for the Family Day presentation after this.”

Kukui pops to attention and nods. Out of some hall, Pikachu makes a running jump onto Ash’s shoulder and rubs cheeks with him. Raichu follows, surfing on his tail.

“Hey buddy, have a good time?” Ash asks his Pikachu, only to be greeted with a flurry of pika-talk. He grins and looks to Hala and Hau. “It was nice meeting both of you.” Then he grins and shakes one of Raichu’s paws. “And you too!”

With that, they leave.

“So,” Hala asks, “How’d the talk with Ahilani go?”

“I’m going to the Cafeteria, you can make everyone’s lunches,” Hau says, deadpan as he walks out, Raichu floating after him.

He tries not to let the bark of laughter that his tutu lets out get to him, tries not to let the sinking feeling in his gut that Ash didn’t look at him very long before leaving get to him, tries not to let the memory of the soft skin of Ash’s knuckles brushing against his own get to him.

He likes Ash. That is something he settles on before getting to Aina Cafeteria. He wants to be Ash’s friend, at least. To befriend another sixteen-year-old who is at the gods’ beck and call. And if Ash wants more, Hau will happily lie under him. But if Ash wants more, Hau isn’t sure what he’ll do.

He slides into a seat at the Cafeteria just as Mallow is getting on her break, which means the universe hates him. Obviously.

“Hau!” she calls, grinning and giving him a side hug before taking the opposing seat. Then she catches a look at his face and gets a Meowth like grin. “Oh I know that look. That’s the ‘I’ve got a crush’ look.”

The universe hates him.

“Who is it? Who is it?” his somehow best friend asks, practically bouncing in her seat before leaning over and calling out to her father to get their normal orders.

“It’s not a crush,” Hau insists. They’ve never been crushes, not like Mallow describes them.

Okay, maybe this one is a crush, but still.

She stares at him.

“I met Ash Ketchum today,” he finally says, then nearly goes deaf from her scream.

“He’s cute, right? I didn’t think he’d be your type but he’s super cool and a super strong battler and, like I said, he _is_ cute! And he has a Pikachu!”

Hau squirms in his seat while Mr. Aina brings them their food and shoots him an apologetic look.

“Don’t go spreading it around, it’ll go away eventually,” Hau says, though he isn’t so sure about that.

“The only reasons the other ones went away eventually was because you slept with them so fast,” Mallow says confidently, but quietly.

“I am going to tie you up by your ankles in the forest and leave you there,” Hau hisses back.

She holds up her hands in defeat. “Okay, okay, I get it. But still, you came to me first!”

“Technically Professor Kukui was told first,” he says, poking her balloon full of holes. “And I’m here because Tutu was getting on my nerves.”

“Thanks, Hau, I’m so glad I can be such a solace as a friend,” she says, ego deflated completely.

Hau grins. “I could have gone into Hao’li for malasadas like I had planned last night.”

“But’cha didn’t,” she replies, perking up a bit again.

They eat and, Hau thinks, that’s over with.

And then she adds him to the group chat and the worrying message that Ash might be off to do something stupid because she added him imprints itself into his brain, and he’s definitely thinking of hanging her by her toes from a _very_ tall tree.

She’s done stuff like this before, yeah, but there weren’t emotions there. The stuff like this before, it had gotten him a first make out session, his first…Well a lot of firsts.

But there weren’t emotions there. He was just attracted to those people.

This is like being tossed in her soup pot.

An hour or so later, he gets a private message from Ash. _Hey, I talked to Mallow and called her the fuck out but forgave her, _basically. But also, _She did say she hadn’t told you I was in that chat so I haven’t forgiven her for that, so I thought you should know she’s working right after class today at the Café and none of us are going to be there_

He replies, explains his feelings about the situation, and lets himself get his hopes up by asking if he’ll see Ash soon.

The other responds asking for food, which Hau gleefully calls him out on, his heart beat loud in his ears, and then nearly passes out from a single heart emoji before heading out to ruin Mallow's shift.

Hau makes poi just for Ash and the professor that night.

The next morning, Hala tells him that Ash is really named Satoshi.

And about the Legendary Birds.

And Lugia.

Hau has never felt so scared for someone, even though this was all five years ago. He has a nightmare about freezing water and blue lined eyes.

The next night, it happens again. But the blue lined eyes materialize into a pokemon with skin like silver who headbutts him out of the water and into a cave. It gives him a curious look and curls up around him and everything after that is warm darkness.

He doesn’t have nightmares of that sea again.

He goes to Akala and talks about the dreams with Olivia, while learning about settling disputes. She determines that it was Lugia who met him and saved him from the ocean.

He’s just back on Melemele for a few hours when Ash—Satoshi—private messages him again, asking if he can come over. That something happened, and now home is too much.

Hau knows a bit about that.

So he suggests a sleepover in the Ruins, makes a couple sandwiches, and packs them, a camping lamp, and two sleeping bags to lug up to the Ruins. Raichu follows, Dartrix preferring to hang out at the dojo instead of roughing it. He’s setting things up when Ash practically tackles him.

Ash does not look like he should be tackling anything but some pillows.

He sits the other boy down and feeds him, feeling a bit like Mallow who keeps coming to him with questions about if she’s right about each little thing she did wrong and is coming closer and closer.

This Ash is the polar opposite of the Ash he’d met before, but those feelings are still there and suddenly, while Ash explains that Lugia was just the beginning and maybe even not the beginning, Hau feels like he’s drowning in that icy sea again.

He offers a hug, gleefully taken, that pushes him onto his back. And in that moment, the Ruins change.

Ash is surprised he can see it, but they both look at the mural above them of Kapu-Kokeku. And of Lugia.

“Wow,” Hau says, breathless, once the Temple of Conflict has disappeared and Ash is nuzzling into his neck. Then he giggles as the other attempts to make himself comfortable, rubbing his cheek against Hau’s jaw. “What are you, a pikachu?” he asks, laughing.

If feels so good.

Ash pushes himself up and grins at Hau, then dives in with fingers skirting over his sides, drawing out more laughter. He fights back, bringing delighted giggles out of Ash and shoving him over onto the ground of the Ruins, triumphant as he catches Ash’s hands in his own. They’re on the edge of something, of something that Hau knows pretty well, when Mallow’s words echo in his head.

_“They only left because you slept with them so fast.”_

Hau didn’t mess those up. They happened exactly as he expected them to.

But he really doesn’t want to mess _this_ up.

Distantly, there’s thunder and rain that they can hear now, between trying to catch their breath.

It’s nice, just like Ash said it would be, even with his own hesitation riding in with the storm.

Then, Ash surges up to rub their cheeks together again and the giggling starts over again for a moment before he pulls back.

This time, his grin, so broken earlier, is true but exhausted. “We should sleep.”

Hau sags, feeling the weight of the day as well. “Yeah.”

The two separate to set up the sleeping bags a little better, a little closer to each other. Raichu and Ash’s Rowlet huddle between them, the little bird using the electric mouse as a heater.

“I…” Ash pauses. “I didn’t cross a line, tonight, did I?”

Hau pauses and props his head up with his hand. “I think we’ve moved a little from where we were before but… We were at a different place before than I’ve ever been with anyone.” Because that’s the truth.

Ash nods. “My friends in other regions would call me childish and say I didn’t get it. I got it, kind of, but I was never really…” He huffs. “I think you’re the first person I’ve really liked, but I’m bad at…emotions, communication, anything you need for a healthy relationship…” He burrows into the sleeping bag. “I don’t want to hurt you and I think I would.”

Hau blinks, memories from earlier, memories of his parents, pushing back at him, and he smiles. “Thanks, then.”

Ash looks up, surprised. “For what?”

“For not wanting to hurt me.” He reaches over, finger poised to turn off the camping lantern. Before he does, though, he leans over their pokemon and kisses Ash’s cheek. “It means a lot.” With that he turns out the lantern and quickly lays back down with a cheerful, “Sleep well!”

Ash squawks in indignation, but settles down with a quiet laugh. “You too. And, uh. You can call me Satoshi if you want. I’d like that.”

Hau has to stifle a squeak. Yeah. He can do that.

He dreams of the cave and of Lugia again.

“Do you want something?” he asks the Beast of the Sea.

He gets the feeling, when he wakes up, that Lugia was laughing at him.

They head down from the Ruins and are shocked when Pikachu comes after him instead of Satoshi for a nuzzle. When the pokemon realizes his mistake, his trainer gets a scolding in pika-talk that leaves both boys laughing.

But still, the nuzzling becomes their thing. When they see each other, they nuzzle. When they part, they nuzzle. Hala thankfully keeps his teasing to himself, not telling Nanu or Olivia, but it becomes a thing that solidifies during their trial process.

Satoshi, thankfully, is there for his own trial against his grandfather but doesn’t video it or tell his class. Kapu-Kokeku even makes sure that, when Hau wins, he gets an Electrium-Z to match Satoshi.

The God of Melemele seems to approve of whatever the fuck he and Satoshi have going on.

Then, in a panic because there are too many Kantonese fighters who are being assholes, Hau becomes the one asking if he can come over. He gets brought over to Momi’s house to clean, gets to see Hapu at something that isn’t a test, talks about feelings more, and starters, and meets one of the legendary birds.

It’s A Time.

Then he's got Lana’s calling him Satoshi’s boyfriend in their weird chat and Hau is Tired thanks, so he changes that chat name and goes back to wrangling fighting students into helping at the Big House and going over the homework he’s been paired with Acerola on.

It isn’t until Satoshi is messaging him from that “Treasure Island” until he realizes how much the Rotation and how unsure he is about their thing and all of his insecurities getting shoved away while he’s being happy with Satoshi has built up. Because he breaks down. Both Tutus freak out, Acerola freaks out, and when Satoshi asks to meet him in Hao’li, he makes a break for it. Mostly to cry and buy masaladas, but also to see Satoshi.

And Satoshi makes things better.

And they almost kiss, but something major happens and Hau thinks it has something to do with legendaries. He falls asleep on Satoshi’s lap in the Ruins while the other does damage control and he dreams.

He’s walking down a hall, a temple that flickers in and out of ruin but remains shiny and white. Three roars echo through the stagnant air.

He comes to a stop in front of three dragons. One is blue, with silver protrusions like crystals. One is white with dark pink lines. One is gray and red and black and gold and undulates in the air like a worm.

“Hello?” he asks, and somehow his soft voice cracks through their deafening noise.

The three turn to him, then turn to each other, questioning.

“Do you know who we are?” the blue one asks.

No, Hau could say, but their names come to him. “Dialga, master of time, Palkia, master of space, Giratina, master of reality.”

“And me, child?” a soft, feminine, small voice asks from behind him.

Hau turns to see the fluffy, pink, cat like creature that he knew even before this dream. “Mew, the ancestor of all.”

Mew nuzzles his cheek. “A smart boy. Yes, for Satoshi, it would have to be someone smart to turn his head so.”

“What’s going on?” Hau asks. “Why am I here? Where is here, anyways?”

“The Hall of Origin,” Palkia, master of space, answers. “You are Hau, then?”

“Yes, now again, what’s going on and why am I here?” he asks.

“I brought you here, sleeping one,” Mew says, giggling.

“What’s going on?” Hau repeats a third time.

“The other child of the gods has awoken,” Mew says simply, floating continuously around Hau. “Kapu-Rehire and Xerneas have found their child, much as Lugia and Kapu-Kokeku found their child before.”

Lugia.

Kapu-Kokeku.

The Ruins. The Temple. The mural.

“Satoshi? Satoshi is Lugia and Kapu-Kokeku’s child?” he asks.

Mew laughs again. “Indeed. And Kapu-Rehire and Xerneas’s child is called Riley. The two are cousins, both through the Kapu and through their human parents.”

The Hall of Origin shakes and Mew looks up. “Oh dear, I believe he’s trying to wake you up. Do tell him hello, from all of us. Glad to have you aboard.”

Hau wakes up to Satoshi shaking him, a relieved look on his face.

That goes away when Hau says, “You’re a god.”

“I’m not,” Satoshi immediately denies.

“You’re the child of Lugia and Kapu-Kokeku, I think that makes you a god,” Hau insists, sitting up.

“I mean, kinda?” Satoshi says, looking away. “It’s not like I have any powers right now, at this age, how do you even know about that?”

“I…” Hau pauses. “When I fell asleep, I was in the Hall of Origin. Mew was there, and Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina. And Mew told me about you. And your cousin.”

Satoshi lets out a curse that Hau has heard the Kantonese students use on occasion.

“I’m sorry for dragging you into this,” is not what Hau expected to come out of Satoshi’s mouth, but it comes out anyways.

“You didn’t…You didn’t drag me into anything!” Hau says. “These dreams came long before you set foot on these islands. I’m not even the only person who gets them! I’m just. I’m just the only person who gets them who…you know…likes you like this.”

Satoshi has a vice grip on his own arm, digging his fingertips into his skin. “Hala found out. Because of makuakāne. But that’s it. No one else. Before Riley woke up, no one else knew. No one human.”

Hau wants to reach out and kiss him, reassure him, but that’s not the reassurance Satoshi is looking for right now. So he stands up and offers the other boy his hand.

The moment Satoshi takes it, they’re back in the Temple of Conflict.

Hau pulls him up and takes his other hand too, then leans their foreheads against each other. Satoshi is only a little taller than him, so it’s not very awkward.

“You’re here, you’re wanted,” Hau says. “Your parents obviously wanted you. All of them. Your family loves you—Mew made sure to tell me to tell you hello from all of them there. And you know what, I want you too. I want you in my life. I’m not going to want out just because I know that you’re not all human. I’m not going to treat you differently because you’re my Kapu’s son. Because I liked you, I wanted you, before I ever knew that. You asked me if you could come back to me…”

There are tears streaming down his face, but he tilts his head up to look Satoshi in the eye. The other boy is gaping slightly, staring at him like _he’s_ the god in the room.

“You better not screw that up,” Hau chokes out, “Because you can. I want you to come back to me. I want you to tell me everything. Before and after.”

Satoshi squeezes his hands and nods. “Yeah. I will. I’ll come back, and I’ll tell you everything. And I’ll try not to screw up and if I ever do you’re allowed to berate me and scold me and call me out and expect me to do better, even if you don’t want me to come back then.”

Hau takes a long breath in. “Tell me about everything.”

And so Satoshi starts with Mew and MewTwo and goes on all the way through to the Kalos Crisis and by the time he’s finished, the sun is shining through the entrance to the Ruins, to the Temple.

Hau squeezes Satoshi’s hands. “Thank you. For telling me. For trusting me.”

Satoshi grins weakly, then a little brighter. “Thank you. For listening to me. For believing me.”

Hau is going to reach up and kiss him, right there and then, when footsteps come running.

Professor Kukui pauses at the entrance, the Temple dissolving around him, to catch his breath. “You kids are going to be the death of me. Ash—Satoshi. It’s Stoutland.”

Stoutland… The pokemon Satoshi’s been helping occasionally, who has taken in a Litten. It’d been a conversation they’d had a few times, with Satoshi asking him for advice.

Satoshi looks back at Hau. “I…”

“Go ahead,” Hau says, yawning. “I’ll get some sleep, at the Big House since it’s all cleaned and fixed up now. Find me if you need me. I’ll message if I leave.”

Satoshi pauses again, leans a moment, another near kiss, but just squeezes Hau’s hands one last time and rushes down the dais to the professor.

But he’ll be back, and he’ll tell Hau all about it.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry they are still not officially boyfriends. I promise it happens soon.


End file.
